


No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

by Stargaze_Sunflower



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Anxious Louie Duck, Doofus Drake is mentioned, Episode: s03e21 The Life and Crimes of Scrooge McDuck!, Gen, Huey and Dewey are gonna give him one, Louie Duck Needs a Hug, Louie Duck-centric, Older Sibling Huey Duck, Panic Attacks, Protective Dewey Duck, Protective Huey Duck, get these children some therapy please, listen i just need some closure for this, no Louie you did not need to apologize to Doofus, so i have written it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 22:21:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29973162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stargaze_Sunflower/pseuds/Stargaze_Sunflower
Summary: The night after returning from the Karmic Court, Louie has some trouble sleeping....Why did he apologize to Doofus?
Relationships: Dewey Duck & Huey Duck & Louie Duck, Dewey Duck & Louie Duck, Huey Duck & Louie Duck
Comments: 24
Kudos: 100





	No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, so, none of us think that the apology was necessary, right? Take this, I hope you like it!! :D

Louie never slept well. Not _really_. In his family, good, uninterrupted sleep was basically a myth. Unless you were knocked out or otherwise had the choice taken from you, which of course also happened way too often. Along with things such as nearly being sacrificed, or almost blowing up in space, or watching your brother _climb out onto the wing of a plane hundreds of feet in the air_ —

So, yeah. Nightmares. Almost constantly.

But that wasn’t the problem tonight. Tonight, he just… couldn’t sleep at all. He wasn’t experiencing the heart-pounding, tear-inducing, _intense_ anxiety that came from waking up from a bad dream. What he was feeling was more of an ongoing, steady current of nerves that had his hands lightly shaking and his stomach doing summersaults. A slow, constant, unbearably _present_ dread that spiked whenever he thought of— of what had happened today.

The Karmic Court, or whatever. Uncle Scrooge. Glomgold. Ma Beagle. Magica.

Doofus Drake.

Why was it that whenever there was more than one of Scrooge’s mortal enemies in one place, Louie had to be there? First, there’d been that whole incident when he’d been grounded and literally everyone who hated his family had shown up at the mansion while he’d been there _alone_ , because everyone else had gone off on the only adventure that he’d ever actually been excited about going on, _ever_. And now there was _this_ ; being whisked off to a mystical court room and forced to interact with people who scared him.

And then later, _apologizing_ to the one who scared him the most.

Why had he done it? Why had he stood in front of the person who’d attempted to kidnap him, had tried to _kill_ him, and had repeatedly invaded his personal space without any care for if he wanted it or not— why had he stood there and _apologized_ to him?

He didn’t really know. He had thought that he had to, that maybe it was the right thing, that it was what he was _supposed_ to do to make things right. But it didn’t _feel_ right. He’d felt relieved in the moment, of course, because Doofus had seemed to take it well, and he had _left_ , and that was what really mattered.

But it was still bothering him. Especially now, sitting on his bed in the dark, after vaguely filling in the rest of his family on where they’d been. Not that they’d noticed he was gone what with the pest problem they’d had.

It was just— He just— He couldn’t calm down, no matter how hard he tried. He’d already drank a whole glass of water, and he’d walked to the bathroom and back to try to relieve some nervous energy, but nothing was working. In fact, the more he thought about it, and the more he tried _not_ thinking about it, the worse it got.

Louie was scrolling through his phone, desperate for a distraction but not really comprehending what he was looking at, and it was _fine_ , he was continuing to be just _fine_ , except his hands choose that moment to shake particularly hard, and he dropped the device in his hands. It bounced twice on his bed before clattering to the floor, and Louie jumped a mile even though he’d been expecting the sound.

He sat up in his bed, staring down at his phone on the floor – it was lit up: 2:00 AM – and he couldn’t bring himself to move. His heart was pounding in his chest suddenly, and he was afraid to give it anything else to divert its energy to. He was afraid.

He choked on his next shallow breath, turning the sound into a quiet sob, and he curled his hands into fists, pressing them up against his eyes as he tried to remember how _breathing_ worked. He couldn’t even _breathe_ right. Couldn’t even say sorry without feeling like even _that_ was something he’d done wrong.

One of the beds above him creaked, and if he could get past the sound of his own heartbeat, he could hear blankets shifting around, too. Louie hesitantly let his fists fall back down to his bed, gripping the comforter there instead. He held his breath as he listened for more movement, unsure if he’d accidentally woken one of his brothers up, and he didn’t know if he wanted that to be the case or not. He was just… stuck.

The ladder groaned as someone put their weight on it, and the quiet sound of someone descending sounded dully around the room. There was a pause about halfway down, a short bout of whispering that Louie couldn’t find the presence of mind to make out, and then Huey climbed the rest of the way down the ladder, hugging his pillow to his chest. Seconds later, Dewey swung down from the middle bunk to land at the foot of Louie’s bed.

Louie ducked his head and hunched his shoulders, continuing to stare at his phone on the ground, not blinking for fear of tears escaping. Huey made a soft noise, then leaned down slowly to pick up his phone, checking it over quickly for cracks before handing it gently to Louie, who took it with a trembling hand and slid it into the pocket of his hoodie, which he had put on earlier to try and comfort himself. It hadn’t really worked.

Dewey shifted to sit on his knees, and Louie felt his hand land softly on his ankle. Huey sat down carefully on his other side, and Louie inhaled shakily.

“Louie?” Huey asked quietly, sounding worried. “Are you alright?”

Louie sniffed, counting the seconds between his breaths in order to calm himself enough to give an answer. Huey and Dewey let him take his time, even though the latter was shifting restlessly on his right.

“I don’t— I don’t know,” said Louie, which was a lie. He _did_ know, and the answer was a resounding ‘no, not at all’. But he couldn’t bring himself to say that out loud. That felt like it’d be harder to come back from.

Huey sighed quietly, and Louie felt guilt break its way into the anxiety he was feeling.

“Sorry,” Louie said, tilting his head up enough to meet Huey’s eyes hesitantly. “If I woke you up.”

Huey shook his head and placed a caring hand on his shoulder. “You don’t need to apologize for that, Louie.”

And just hearing those words was enough to bring it all down around him.

Louie buried his face in his hands just in time for a sob to shake his shoulders, and the tears he’d been trying to hold back forced their way out of his tightly shut eyes. His chest _hurt_ , like someone had kicked him straight in the heart, or had reached in and _squeezed_. His lungs alternated between breathing fast and shallow and forgetting how to even breathe at all.

_(‘You don’t need to apologize for that, Louie.’_

_‘—I’m still sorry, for any pain that I caused you.’)_

What had he even ever done to Doofus that warranted an apology? Gone to his stupid birthday party with the intent to con him? So had everyone else there, and then Doofus had almost had him _beaten_ to death. The first time they’d met, he’d kidnapped Louie and had planned to do any number of horrible things to him. And Doofus hadn’t even given him an apology in return, for _any_ of it. He’d just left. What if he expected _more_ from Louie, now that he’d gotten an apology?

“ _Louie_ ,” Huey’s voice broke through his panicked thoughts, sounding desperate. “Louie, _breathe_. Breathe with me.”

Huey grabbed Louie’s hand and placed it against his own chest, demonstrating even breaths for Louie to follow, which he tried his best to replicate. Dewey had grabbed his other hand, just to hold it, and it helped to ground him as he concentrated on the rhythm of air going in and out of his tired lungs.

Eventually, he was calmer, resting his head on Dewey’s shoulder as Huey rubbed large circles on his back. He was exhausted, but still didn’t think that he could fall asleep.

“You okay?” Dewey asked him nervously, squeezing the hand he was still holding.

And Louie thought that this time he could tell the truth. They wouldn’t believe anything else, after _that_ whole situation. They knew him too well.

They were his brothers, and that made it a little easier.

“No,” Louie answered, voice hoarse. “I’m _not_.”

Huey halted rubbing his back in order to put his arm around him and pull into a side hug.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Huey asked.

Louie took a deep, measured breath, and nodded.

“So… you know how I went to court today?” Louie began.

“You mean how you were mystically summoned to a courtroom that seems to have been in a different dimension?” Huey asked, something amused and tired in his voice. “I think I remember, yeah.”

Louie huffed a laugh. “Yeah, well. Doofus Drake was there. He was the prosecutor.”

Huey’s arms tensed around him, and Dewey’s hand was unnaturally still in his.

“Oh,” Dewey said, when it didn’t look like Huey was ready to respond. “That couldn’t have gone well.”

“No, not really,” Louie said. “I mean, it went okay, given the circumstances, but…”

“What did he do?” Huey asked suddenly, a hard edge to his voice. “What happened?”

“Well, uh, you’ve met him. You know how he is,” Louie said vaguely, not yet ready to commit to a full explanation.

“Insane? Creepy? Scares you half to death?” Huey listed.

“Not to mention he has like, no sense of personal space,” Dewey added.

Louie hunched his shoulders a little bit. “Yeah.”

He remembered Doofus getting right in his face while he was sitting in his chair in the ‘courtroom’. He remembered trying to lean away from him as far as he could, and closing his eyes tightly as Doofus _pet_ the side of his face. Uncle Scrooge hadn’t done anything, although he probably wasn’t aware of all the history between him and the other kid. (There was a small, cynical voice in his head that insisted that he didn’t _have_ to be aware to know to interfere.)

And Louie remembered after that, when he’d declared that Scrooge was innocent in the case of Glomgold, when Doofus had come up and— and _licked_ him. And he’d been stuck then, too, cringing away with his eyes shut until his legs caught up with his brain, which was already a million miles away. He’d scrubbed himself viciously with the towel he’d been given, hard enough that a few feathers had come out, and he’d taken a _very_ long shower when he’d gotten home.

“Did he… _do_ anything?” Dewey asked hesitantly, right on cue, and Louie shrugged.

“Got into my face, _touched_ my face, and then later he— he…” Louie trailed off; the confidence he’d started the sentence with had faded. He growled in frustration and shook his head, determined to continue. “He just— he _licked_ me.”

Huey exploded. “He _what?!_ ”

Louie jumped, and Dewey pulled him closer, wrapping his arm around his shoulder as Huey got up to pace angrily.

“You good?” Dewey whispered to him, and Louie shrugged.

They watched Huey go back and forth for a while, mumbling to himself under his breath furiously. When he thought that Huey had expended enough energy, he called him back. His older brother sat back down on the bed with a huff.

“I’m fine, now,” Louie said. “Nothing else happened.”

“ _Nothing else_ —” Huey began, but cut himself off with a deep breath. “Louie, that was more than enough to be upset about.”

“He’s right, Lou,” Dewey said. “And it would be okay to be upset even if he _didn’t_ do those things. Even if all you had to do was see him. That’s enough, too.”

Louie sighed and nodded, knowing that they were right, but feeling bad about it anyway.

“But that’s not it, is it?” Huey asked suddenly, clearly using his mind-reading powers, now. “There’s something else.”

Oh, yes. The apology. How could he forget.

“After everyone had stated their cases,” Louie began, “and I realized that Uncle Scrooge had done some bad things, I… I knew that I didn’t want Doofus to have this _grudge_ that he’d hold against me for my whole life.”

Huey and Dewey nodded to show that they were following.

“So, I—” Louie huffed when his voice cracked. “I apologized.”

His brothers went still, and Louie ducked his head and waited anxiously for a response.

“You— you _apologized?_ ” Huey asked incredulously, and Louie nodded tiredly.

“ _You_ apologized?” Dewey repeated.

“Yes, Dewey, _I_ apologized,” Louie said.

“But that’s— That makes no sense!” Dewey exclaimed, seeming genuinely frustrated and confused.

“Yes, thank you. I’ve spent the past few hours freaking out about it,” Louie said, mildly irritated. “It’s just— Uncle Scrooge made all these enemies, and he’d done some things to them that he never apologized for, especially to Magica, so I just thought— I dunno, that it was the right thing to do. Scrooge seemed to think so.”

“Okay, first of all,” Huey began, pinching the bridge of his beak, “your situation with Doofus Drake is different than anything of Uncle Scrooge is dealing with. Secondly, Scrooge is an _adult_ , and you shouldn’t be the one who has to set a good example.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Louie relented.

“And nothing that you feel like you did wrong to Doofus justifies what _he_ did to _you_ ,” Huey continued, really getting into it now. “You shouldn’t have had to apologize to him.”

“I _know_ , Huey. Trust me,” Louie said, gently taking Huey’s hand, hoping it could ground them both. “But I can’t exactly take it back.”

Huey sighed, deflating, and Louie laid his head on his shoulder, knowing that Huey hated being overwhelmed by his anger, knowing that he hated being angry in the _first_ place, but that he tolerated it when it was in defense of his family.

“Well, _hopefully_ , he won’t bother you anymore,” Dewey said, something mildly dangerous in his voice, “but if he does, he’ll regret it.”

“He definitely will,” Huey agreed, and then he made eye contact with Louie, looking a little guilty. “We’re never there when you need us to be.”

“We’re gonna change that,” Dewey said, with that level of determination that meant he was never going to give up on it; the tone of voice that meant it was a promise.

Louie cracked a small, genuine smile, feeling lighter than he had since he’d escaped the Karmic Court.

“Thanks,” Louie said, softly.

“No problem,” Dewey said, ruffling his hair playfully. Louie huffed and tried to fix it.

“Do you think you can sleep now?” Huey asked, concern and care in his voice.

The thought of it still made Louie’s stomach twist, even after all this emotional talk and short journey of self-discovery. He shrugged nervously.

“K, we’ll camp here, then,” Dewey said easily, flopping back onto Louie’s bed and making himself comfortable. Louie scowled at him with no real heat, warmth in his heart.

“Sounds good to me,” Huey said, but he was making his way to the ladder. “I’ll be right back.”

Louie and Dewey exchanged curious looks as Huey climbed the creaking ladder. They heard some rustling around and a muffled sound of exertion, and then Huey was on his way back down. When he reached the bottom, he threw the object he was carrying on top of Dewey and Louie, who grunted when the thing was heavier than anticipated.

Huey smiled down at them with his hands on his hips, looking very pleased with himself.

“What the heck, Huey?” Dewey wheezed, and Louie laughed quietly.

“It’s a weighted blanket!” Huey said happily, and he wiggled his way underneath it to lay beside them. “It’ll help!”

Dewey and Louie groaned, but it was all in good fun. The weight of the blanket did seem to help keep him grounded, and with a brother on either side, his eyelids were already growing heavy.

Dewey snuggled up right next to him, and Huey grabbed his hand in a light, easy-to-escape grip. Louie closed his eyes, and fell asleep within minutes.

**Author's Note:**

> This was a spur of the moment thing asdasjsakj I don't know how good it is, but let me know if you liked it! Thanks for reading! 
> 
> Comment/Kudos if you have the time <3


End file.
